SAN ANTONIO—(BUSINESS WIRE)—July 20, 2005—
A general purpose software program for computing the
probabilistic response or reliability of engineered systems has
received a 2005 R&D 100 award. R&D Magazine has selected Southwest
Research Institute's(R) NESSUS Version 8.2 as one of the 100 most
significant technological achievements of the past year.

NESSUS 8.2 is a commercial version of software originally
developed by a team led by SwRI as part of a 10-year project for NASA
to develop a probabilistic design tool for the space shuttle main
engine. Co-developers are Los Alamos National Laboratory, NASA Glenn
Research Center and Mustard Seed Software.

NESSUS 8.2 simulates variations and uncertainties in loads,
geometry, material behavior and other user-defined inputs to compute
probability of failure and probabilistic sensitivity measures of
engineered and natural systems. The software has been successfully
applied to a diverse range of problems in aerospace, gas turbine
engines, biomechanics, pipelines, geomechanics, automotive systems,
defense, weaponry and infrastructure.

"NESSUS is a practical tool for assessing uncertainties and
predicting reliability to support decisions involving cost or safety
critical problems," said Dr. Ben Thacker, manager of SwRI's
Reliability and Materials Integrity Section and a developer of the
software. "It is particularly useful for extremely large and complex
problems and for one-of-a-kind systems, where testing is impractical
or impossible."

NESSUS Version 8.2 includes a sophisticated JAVA-based graphical
user interface, three-dimensional probability contouring and results
visualization, capabilities for performing advanced design of
experiments and sensitivity analysis, a probabilistic input database,
and state-of the art interfaces to many third-party codes including
ABAQUS(R), ANSYS(R), LS-DYNA(R), MSC.NASTRAN(R) and ParaDyn(R).

SwRI has won 29 R&D 100 awards since 1971. This year's awards will
be presented Oct. 20, 2005, in Chicago. For further technical
information about NESSUS, contact Thacker at 210-522-3896 or visit
www.nessus.swri.org.

SwRI is an independent, nonprofit, applied research and
development organization based in San Antonio, with more than 3,000
employees and an annual research volume of more than $399 million.